I have benefited from the advice and support of many friends and colleagues who have shared with me over the years their knowledge, provided encouragement, read and reread drafts, invited me to speak at their universities, and inspired me in ways both large and small. I would like to acknowledge first and foremost the tremendous generosity of Everett Rowson from whom I learned a great deal about homoeroticism in the Arabic tradition. He has kindly shared with me copies of two manuscripts of the Encyclopedia of Pleasure and some of his own unpublished work. His example of fine scholarship, good advice, invaluable comments, and constant support accompanied this book from its inception. I also would like to thank the following colleagues for their encouragement, enthusiasm for this project, many fine suggestions, and above all their friendship: Kathryn Babayan, Judith Bennett, Howard Bloch, Matilda Bruckner, Kristen Brustad, Jane Burns, Bob Clark, Alexandra Cuffel, Carl Ernst, Adam Knobler, Norris Lacy, Kenny Levine, Michael McVaugh, Afsaneh Najmabadi, Stephen Nichols, Ruth Nisse, Lynn Ramey, Sarah Shields, Suzanne Toczyski, and Madeleine Zilfi. I am equally indebted to the librarians and archivists at the Library of Congress for their expertise locating key materials during the early stages of researching this book. I thank also the audience at the many universities where I was invited to speak in the United States and abroad for the many perceptive remarks on earlier drafts of chapters included here: Rice, Emory, University of California (Santa Cruz), Virginia Tech, Amherst, the Radcliffe Institute, Smith College, the University of Umea (Sweden), the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Vanderbilt, Duke, and the University of North Carolina.
While working on this book, I was fortunate to receive much financial support which has afforded me release time from teaching and allowed me to devote myself to research and writing. I acknowledge with gratitude the Florence Gould Foundation for Studies of French History and Culture which has permitted me to spend one year at the National Humanities Center at Research Triangle Park (2005–6). I would like to thank the fellows at the Center for many vibrant and stimulating conversations and the staff for its cheerful assistance (Karen Carroll for copyediting my manuscript, librarians Jean Houston, Betsy Dain, and Eliza Robertson for their persistence in locating any material needed, however obscure, and Marie Brubaker for timely photo copying). I am also indebted to the Center for Arts and Humanities at UNC, to the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Spray-Randleigh Fellowship at UNC for release time from teaching, research leaves, and travel grants. I owe a great debt to the Fulbright commission for supporting two months of research in Cairo, at the Center for Arabic Study Abroad; I would like to thank especially Dr. Ahmed Kishk, Dean of Dar al-Ulum at Cairo University, for his erudition, his helpful advice, and his generosity in sharing with me some important library holdings.
I am indebted to the three anonymous reviewers of the University of Pennsylvania Press for their careful reading and their perceptive suggestions which have helped me articulate many fine points. I also thank Jerome E. Singerman, Humanities Editor at the University of Pennsylvania Press, and Noreen O’Connor-Abel, my project editor, whose support and encouragement were appreciated at every stage of the publication of this book.
Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank my parents (Mohamed and Hoda) and my sisters (Noha, Ghada, and Nadia) for their unconditional love, encouragement, and belief in me. To Martine, who patiently read and reread the entire manuscript in its numerous and multiple incarnations, who nourished me both literally and metaphorically throughout the entire process, and who provided a constant source of cheerful support, I dedicate this book.
Parts of Chapter 2 appeared in Same Sex Love and Desire Among Women in the Middle Ages, edited by Francesca Sautman and Pamela Sheingorn (New York: Palgrave, 2001), and an earlier version of Chapter 3 appeared in Religion, Gender, and Culture in the Pre-Modern World, edited by Alexandra Cuffel and Brian Britt (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). Reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan.